EDFacts will allow the Department to improve the use of data in policy-making and program management. It will enable us to highlight the areas that truly are improving and getting more kids to proficiency. Better, higher-quality data about all aspects of education have always been critical to No Child Left Behind, and will continue to help inform our actions as we help states achieve the commitment and promise of bringing all kids to proficiency.
--Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education
EDFacts is a U. S. Department of Education initiative to put performance data at the center of policy, management and budget decisions for all K-12 educational programs. EDFacts centralizes performance data supplied by K-12 state education agencies (SEAs) with other data assets, such as financial grant information, within the Department to enable better analysis and use in policy development, planning and management. The purpose of EDFacts is to:
- Place the use of robust, timely performance data at the core of decision and policymaking in education.
- Reduce state and district data burden and streamline data practices.
- Improve state data capabilities by providing resources and technical assistance.
- Provide data for planning, policy, and management at the federal, state, and local levels.
EDFacts relies on the Education Data Exchange Network (EDEN), a centralized portal through which states submit their educational data to the U.S. Department of Education. EDEN is comprised of three main components: (1) the EDEN Submission System (ESS), an electronic data system capable of receiving data on over 100 data groups at the state, district and local levels; (2) the EDEN Survey Tool (EST), which collects data supplementary to the ESS data; and (3) the EDEN staging database, a holding area for newly submitted data.
Important News!
New Race and Ethnicity Guidance for the Collection of Federal Education Data
Final guidance issued in the Federal Register on October 19, 2007 (72 Fed. Reg. 59267) on the collection and reporting of racial and ethnic data by educational institutions and other grantees now allows individuals to self-identify their ethnicity and race, and select more than one race and/or ethnicity. This change permits individuals to more accurately reflect their racial and ethnic background by not limiting responses to only one racial or ethnic category, and expands reporting options to seven categories (American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, and Two or More Races). For further information:
EDFacts Overview
EDFacts/EDEN System Documentation
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